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The "social organism"
methodology of sociology

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The "social organism"

Kelby
Cognitive Philosopher

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Posted 09/03/08 - 01:26 AM:	#11
Perhaps the animosity to "social facts" and the "social organism" is based in its very history. Emergence theory was gaining popularity during Spencer's time, and to connote a society with a biological organism, gaining a semi-consciousness of its own, working independently of human kind, is founded on that very partial understanding of emergence. A thing is a thing defined by its mere function. If a network of neurons creates an acting organism, and a pile of clothing that creates an acting organism, will both nonetheless be an acting organism. Likewise, the material of the constituent parts of an organism is arbitrary to the function. In light of Durkheim, Comte, and Spencer, society can live on its own as a function independent of humanity. The fact that functionalism is teleological was not seen as a problem because emergence theory emphasized the importance of the ends and not the means. Again, perhaps they are founded when they say one cannot ascribe human psychological attributes to something like a social organism. The mereological fallacy states that it is unfounded to ascribe psychological attributes to the brain. Brains do not think. They do not see. They do not perceive. They do not make decisions. Instead, people do all those things, and theta argument may suffice, for if it is a fallacy to ascribe such psychological behavior to a brain, then it certainly would be a fallacy to ascribe psychological attributes to a society. But I really don't know...
Embodied Cognition: http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/embodcog.htm#H2

wuliheron
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Posted 09/10/08 - 04:00 AM:	#12
Sociologists are already addressing this issue. The place to start, imo, is with studying the conscious and unconscious. For example, in the largest study of its kind some twentythousand people were given a psychology questionare online. Their responses indicated that even most people who considered themselves to not be prejudiced actually were. By first understanding how conscious and unconscious minds work socially we can then go on to produce a fundamental theory of social organisms.

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